One Wild Ride
by BloodyStar-Nightshayde
Summary: OC centric; Cahira was a girl from a small town with a dark past, in an attempt to escape it she runs to an old friend, Sarah Lennox. She could have never anticipated the presence of giant alien robots.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is my first story, any constructive criticism would be helpful.

Disclaimer: Anything recognized is not mine, I am merely playing with characters people more imaginative than me created. Now on to the story.

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><p>One Wild Ride<p>

Cahira sighed as she walked up the house she lived in. She refused to call it home. It wasn't, not hers at any rate. It was merely the place she lived with the man most would say was her father, she called him sperm donor. He was never around for her and when he was there, the pain was incredible. She had been neglected and emotionally scarred for as long as she could remember. Cahira thought that was the norm until she entered school. After, she knew something was wrong. It wasn't until she was 11 that she became aware of just how wrong her home life was. The day her so called father began beating her, she stopped calling this place home.

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><p>She needed to get out. This place was suffocating her with memories better left forgotten. Cahira Whelan snuck out of her room being careful not to wake the slumbering man in the living room. The stench of alcohol reached her nose. She checked her surroundings, marking the best route to the door without making any noise. She hoisted the duffel bag higher on her shoulder, and began to make her way across the room. She held her breath as she opened the door, praying to anyone listening that the door would not squeak. She almost let out a sigh of relief when it didn't, but continued to hold her breath; she wasn't out of the woods yet.<p>

She shut the door with a soft click, wincing at the noise. She made her way to her truck. For the first time in her life she was glad she had to park out in the back way away from the house. She reached her truck, opened the door and threw her bag in the passenger seat. She started up her truck and put it in gear. She pulled onto the dirt road that served as the driveway, crossing her fingers; if she could make it to the road she would be home free. She was paranoid glancing in the review every couple seconds to see if anyone exited the house. Sighing in relief as she felt the front tires hit pavement; she shifted into a higher gear and left her personal hell behind. Now she needed someplace to crash until she could figure out what to do.

The first place that came to mind was to go to the city and hide in the masses, but it would be too easy to find the truck, even though it was in her name, she did not want to risk the truck being filed as stolen. Racking her brain she was coming up blank. She had no friends she could turn to, no family…wait that was not true. There was an old friend who told her to ask if she ever needed anything, who lived a couple states over and lived in the middle of nowhere. She decided she would go to Sarah's.

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><p>As she drove through the Nevada deserts, she wondered how she would explain showing up on Sarah's doorstep. She knew Will, Sarah's husband, was in the military and figured just showing up might not be taken too well. She pulled out her cell phone and scrolled through her contacts until she came upon Sarah's number. She turned the radio down, and hesitated as her thumb hovered over the call button. What if Sarah said no? What if she was jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire? No she could not let her insecurities rule her. With that thought she pressed her thumb to the green button before she could change her mind.<p>

The phone rang twice before it was picked up.

"Hello," a woman's voice came through the speaker on the cell phone. Cahira paused. "Hello?"

"Sarah?" Cahira said tentatively. "It's Cay."

"Cay? Oh my God, it's been far too long since I last talked to you. What's going on?"

"Sarah, I need some help…"Cay trailed off, unsure phrase her request.

"Cahira, what sort of trouble have you gotten yourself into this time?" Sarah demanded, with an undertone of concern in her voice. Cahira smiled. It was nice to know Sarah cared.

"I…I left Sarah. I can't go back there; I don't think I'd survive it."

"Cay, where are you now? I mean where are you going to stay? John was your father and I know he took your money for booze. For that matter aren't you still in school?" Sarah said in a rush.

"I'm…in Nevada, I don't know where I am going to stay. I graduated last year and I was able to save some money."

"What are you doing in Nevada? You live in Wyoming."

Cay cut Sarah off. "Lived. I lived in Wyoming. I plan on moving to California. Hang on." Cay put the put her directional on and got off at the next exit. She needed some food. "Okay. Sorry, I just pulled off the freeway."

"You're driving? Cay!" Cay rolled her eyes. "Don't you dare roll your eyes at me." Cay laughed; Sarah knew her too well. "Let me talk to Will. You can stay with us for a while. At least until you get on your feet."

"Sarah, I'm just looking for a place to crash for a couple nights so I can find an apartment and possibly a job. I can pay you…"

"You will not. You're like my little sister. You're family. You know the address, when do you think you'll be here?" Sarah said.

"I'm nearing Vegas. I have probably another seven plus hours until I reach you. Depends on traffic."

"Cay, you should stop for the night, you'll reach here sometime about three am. How long has it been since you stopped anyway?"

"I haven't. I left about three this morning, really only stopping for gas and food. I've been wired on adrenaline. I won't stop until I feel I'm somewhere relatively safe. Away from _him._"

"That's not healthy, Cay. Anyway, I will talk to Will. I'll call you later to let you know what's going on. And Cay, please, _please_, be careful."

"I always am Sarah, you know that."

"That's what I'm afraid of." Sarah replied, and hung up.

Cahira sighed in relief, and let her head fall back against the headrest. Sarah did not need to know that she was running almost 72 hours with almost no sleep. Her truck seemed to rev in annoyance, maybe she was more tired than she thought. She would survive just as she had always done.

The hours passed, her iPod blaring through the speakers. It was approaching one am when her phone rang again. It was Sarah telling her she would leave the back door unlocked and to crash on the couch and they would figure something more permanent when Cay woke up. By this time Cahira was already on the 99 freeway somewhere between Fresno and Bakersfield. Her truck was apparently fed up with her not sleeping and wanted to get there in record time because when she glanced down at the speedometer she was doing over 100. She lifted her foot off the gas, but the truck never slowed. Maybe the guy she bought the truck from was right; maybe this thing was possessed. But then again it may be the fact that she was way overdue for some sleep. She shrugged and lightly placed her foot on the brake to slow down, and she was relieved to feel the truck begin to decelerate. She removed her foot from the brake and shoot her head, hoping the next couple hours to Sarah's passed quickly.

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><p>Cahira pulled onto the dirt drive leading to Sarah's house. She noted the black GMC Topkick in the drive; it seemed to be watching her. She pulled up next to it and got out. The feeling of being watched did not go away. Grabbing her bag she made her way around the house, senses on high alert. She walked across the yard without a sound and slowly turned the doorknob. She stopped and turned her head to see if she could catch what was watching her. Nothing seemed out of place, just the two trucks in her line of vision. Shrugging it off as lack of sleep and being so high strung, she quietly made her way into the house.<p>

Entering to a kitchen, Cahira made her way through the doorway. She noticed an archway, and walked over to it, hoping it led to a living room. It did. Sarah had left a pillow and a blanket on the couch. Cahira smiled tiredly, and made her way to the couch. She silently set her bag down and removed her shoes. She made herself a bed and marveled at how comfy the couch was. She reached down and opened her bag a little. For the first time since her mom died, Cahira felt relatively safe.


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you to everyone who add this story to their favs. I'm glad people are enjoying it. Anyway here's the next chapter. Don't expect updates this quickly, I have maybe two more chapters pre-written so these will probably be uploaded over the next week.

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize is not mine, Cahira is mine.

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><p>Chapter 2<p>

Cahira was not sure how long she slept, but when she woke it was light out, if the red tinge to her eyelids was anything to go by, and there were footsteps. She tensed her hand slipping into her bag, her hand closing around the butterfly knife she kept for defense.

"Looks like she made it alright, Sarah. Should we wake her up for breakfast?" A male voice said; it was familiar.

"No let her sleep. If I know her like I think I do, she hasn't slept in a while." Sarah's voice drifted over Cahira, allowing her to relax.

Cahira slowly opened her eyes and was surprised to see two males and Sarah off to the side. She knew the one who had spoken was Will, the fact that he was wearing a shirt with a military designation on it helped. The other male had a cowboy look to him, about 30, rugged features, boots, blue jeans, and t-shirt.

"She got in at 3:17 this morning. But she was tense and she knew there was something watching her."

"What do you mean, 'Hide?" Will asked.

"She looked around and before she entered the house took another glance at the backyard as if looking for something out of place."

_He was what I felt last night_, Cahira thought, her eyes narrowed and studied the male closely. There was a faint energy about him, like he was not real. Slowly sitting up she removed her hand from her bag leaving the knife, if the man was a threat, Sarah would not be so trusting around him, right? Cahira waited to see how long it would take for the three to notice her.

Just as she thought, the unknown man was the first to notice. He jumped as he saw her sitting up, and then glanced, unsure, at Sarah and Will. Will gave the other man a quick nod, turning to Cahira.

"Dunno if you remember me but…"

"You're Will, Sarah's husband." Cahira said. "You, I remember. Him," she jabbed her thumb in the man called 'Hide's direction, "I don't know."

"This is 'Hide. He's…my partner."Will replied. Cahira noted the hesitance. She felt an energy flow over her.

As Cahira stood up, Sarah came over to her. Giving her a critical look asked, "Why are you wearing long sleeves and jeans when it's almost 90 degrees out?" Her face became hard. "He got physical." It was a statement, not a question. She noticed 'Hide slip out. Sarah seemed to take Cahira's silence as conformation. Sarah grabbed her arm and dragged her down the hall to what appeared to be a guest bedroom. "Shirt off. I want to see the damage."

Cahira stared at Sarah as if deciding if she was serious. After a moment Cahira apparently came to a decision and gingerly removed her shirt, revealing a myriad of bruises. Some seemed big enough to indicate internal damage. Sarah noticed her wince as she raised her arms above her head. This was worse than anything Sarah had imagined. Cahira looked away in shame.

"It wasn't your fault, Cay. Look at me." Sarah grabbed Cahira's chin, forcing her to face Sarah. "How long?"

"Since mom died." Cahira said in a tiny voice.

Sarah looked at her. "That long? Your mom died almost eight years ago. Why didn't you tell anyone? Why didn't you tell me?"

Cahira put her shirt back on. "Because, I didn't know how. And I was afraid of how people would react." She would not look at Sarah. "I was 11 and didn't know any better. What was I supposed to do? He was my dad and then this." She gestured to herself.

Sarah sighed, "Let's go make breakfast. Actually I'll be cooking, you go back to bed. You only had about three or four hours of sleep." She left the room, Cahira trailing behind her.

"I'm awake now. I'm used to little sleep. I'll help make breakfast. Besides I think Will wants to interrogate me, and I believe that 'Hide man wanted to ask some questions too. He's not…normal, er, what passes as normal anyway, is he?" Cahira asked, remembering the strange energy.

"What do you mean?"

"There is this weird energy around him, like he's not real or something. I dunno how to explain it." Cay sighed. "It's like the energy around him is charged or something. I'm not explaining this right. But he's not like you and Will is he?"

Sarah didn't answer as they entered the kitchen, where Will and 'Hide were sitting at the table, talking in low tones. Cahira gave a quick glance at them, their sudden silence made her believe they were talking about her. Sarah refused to let her help and told her to sit at the table. Cahira felt like she was being thrown to the wolves. "Traitor," she muttered, and made her way to an empty chair. Noticing the booster seat in one, wondered where the owner of said chair was, as most children, especially young ones, were up before their parents. As if summoned by her thoughts a three year old girl came running into the room.

"Mama, Daddy, Unca 'Hide, I wanna watch cartoons." Cahira sidestepped the bundle of energy. The girl slid to a stop upon seeing Cahira. "Who you?"

Cahira knelt down and said, "I'm Cay. A friend of your Mama's."

The girl tilted her head to the side, then seemed to come to a decision, "I Bella, are you like Unca 'Hide?"

Will laughed, although it seemed a bit forced, and said, "No she's not like Uncle 'Hide. But she will be staying here a while."

Cahira looked out the kitchen window, and then checked her pocket. Yep, keys were still there, so why was she seeing her truck in the backyard when she clearly remembered parking next to the Topkick over by the barn. Looking out another window she saw the corner of the barn. She walked over to the door and outside. Walking around the house to where she thought she left her truck she saw her footprints in the dirt but no other footprints leading to the area. So how did her truck get over there?

"What are you looking for?" Will had apparently followed her out, Bella tottering behind him.

"Well, I parked my truck over here last night, but now it's over there and I've still got the keys. I'm trying to figure out how it happened."

Bella tottered up to Cahira and put her arms in the air. Cahira automatically picked her up and placed Bella on her hip. Will looked confused at the action, but did not say anything about it.

"Maybe you parked it over there? I mean you got in late last night and you didn't get much sleep, maybe you don't remember."

"I have a semi-photographic memory, Will. And my footprints lead from here to the house. Not from where the truck is currently parked. In fact there are no footprints over there. It's like my truck moved itself, but that can't be right." Bella laid her head on Cahira's shoulder and began sucking her thumb. Confused, Cahira made her way back to the house, Will behind her with a worried look on his face.

As she entered the house she saw Sarah studying 'Hide. 'Hide looked unnerved by the action.

"What are you doing, Sarah?" Will asked, confused at his wife's behavior.

"Trying to figure out what energy Cay felt around 'Hide." Was Sarah's reply.

Will and 'Hide shared an unreadable look and went outside. Cahira just sat at the table, Bella in her lap.

"Well, at least Annabelle likes you." Sarah said, finally noticing her daughter in Cahira's arms. She began placing food on the table. When she was done she went to the back door and yelled outside that breakfast was ready. Sarah came back to the table and tried to persuade Bella to move to her booster seat. Cahira said she was fine on her lap, if it was ok with Sarah.

"If you're sure?" Cahira nodded. "Alright."

The two men walked back in the door, steely determination on their faces. Cahira was immediately on guard. Bella did not notice a thing and tried to grab some eggs. Cahira served her a child's portion. Watching the two men out of the corner of her eyes, Cahira grabbed a bit of food for herself. The meal was eaten in a tense silence. Cahira noticed 'Hide watching her closely without trying to be too obvious, he wasn't eating. After they were finished eating, Will and 'Hide stood up.

"Cay, there is something you need to see." Will said as the two men walked out the door. The indication that she should follow was implied. Sarah nodded to her and went to grab Bella from her, but Bella clung to Cahira. They walked out the door and she wondered where 'Hide went, as she could only see Will and the Topkick which had moved since she had been out there earlier, which was odd as she had not heard an engine start up.

"What's going on?" She asked, wary of what she might be told.

Sarah answered her, "You know how you said you felt an energy around 'Hide and asked me if he was normal? Well, you were right, he isn't. Meet the real 'Hide, or rather his name is Ironhide."

Cahira looked as Sarah, "Ironhide?" then she heard a strange whirring and clicking, and caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Instinctively, her grip on Bella tightened. She stared at where the Topkick once was, in its place was a 25 foot tall robot with the same coloring. She blinked and muttered. "I must still be asleep. 'Cause there's no way I just saw a Topkick turn into a giant robot." Will laughed, and so did the robot. The voice was similar to 'Hide's.

"You're not dreaming, little human. I am real." The robot, Ironhide, crouched down and Bella squealed. Cahira knew she was not dreaming, because her right ear was now ringing. She put Bella down and remained tense as the little girl ran up to the robot.

"Up, Unca 'Hide, up." The robot picked the two year old up gently and held her in his giant hand. Bella squealing in delight the entire time. Ironhide placed the little girl back on the ground.

"Okay."

The married couple and Ironhide looked at her, confused expressions on their faces. "Okay?" Ironhide asked.

"Okay. Sarah trusts you, and the way you were with Bella convinced me you won't hurt us." She cocked her head to the side. "The energy around you feels similar to my truck." She said turning to look at her charcoal grey 2004 Chevy Silverado quad cab, heavy duty.

Ironhide looked uncomfortable. "Your truck is a Cybertronian, Autobot as far as I know." He stopped as Cahira started laughing. "What is funny?"

Cahira sobered up enough to say, "I guess the guy sort of right. The truck isn't possessed though; she's just an alien robot. The guy I bought her from." She clarified breaking down in hysterical laughter again.

"She?" Will inquired.

"Well my truck always gave me the impression of a female personality. She's certainly temperamental enough."

Even though she was expecting it, seeing her truck turn into a robot was still somewhat shocking. The robot stood about 23 feet tall and had a more feminine appearance than Ironhide.

"Chromia." Ironhide said.

"Hello Ironhide. And yes you are correct, Cahira, I am a femme. One of a few left. My trajectory was off when I entered the atmosphere, and I crash landed in Wyoming. The man who found me took me and was brutal on me. I had luckily scanned an alt mode and I started acting up on him. I was glad when you purchased me from him. Although seeing what your male creator did to you, almost made me transform and shoot him." Her voice took on a hard edge at the end. "You should call Ratchet, my internal comm is down and Cahira needs to be scanned. I am sure she has a broken rib or two, as well as some other injuries."

"Your father did that to you?" Will asked, turning to Cahira, "those injuries that Ironhide told me about?"

Cahira sighed, and gave a tight nod. The fact that she was in the presence of two alien robots hadn't fully set in yet. She would freak out later.

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><p>Cahira excused herself after the two robots explained about their war and why they were here. She walked out of sight around the house. As soon as she was sure she could not be seen she took off running. She needed to figure this out. Her truck was an alien robot fighting a war against other alien robots hell bent on the annihilation of the human race. Her feet took her out to the back of the property, where a tall tree stood, with branches that made it perfect for climbing. Even with the way her rib hurt, she decided to climb it anyway. Making her way up she stopped about 30 feet up and leaned against the trunk of the tree. Her thoughts running at light speed through her mind, as she sorted everything out. She was not quite sure how long she sat there, but found herself coming out of her thoughts to the sounds of multiple robotic footsteps, more than the two she had already met.<p>

"She should be around here somewhere." Cahira heard Chromia say. She looked down and noticed Sarah looking up into the tree. She flattened herself against the tree.

"Cay! I know you're up there!" Sarah called. "Come on down. Ratchet wants to make sure you're alright!" Cahira sighed; Sarah really did know her too well.

"Where is she?" Cahira heard an unknown male voice say, she assumed it was another robot as there was a metallic hint to it. That and it seemed to come from in front of her instead of below.

"Right here." Cahira said, walking along the branch to catch a glimpse of the other robots, _Autobots_, she reminded herself. She saw two yellow looking ones, a silver one, and one with a blue and red color scheme in addition to Ironhide and Chromia. The blue and red one turned to the tree and his face seemed to show confusion. It was an oddly human expression on a mechanical face, although she had to remind herself that they were living beings, not simply some AI project.

"Optimus, could you bring her down. I don't want her doing more damage to herself by trying to climb down." One of the yellow ones said, this one more of a greenish yellow, and it had lights on it, making her think it was an emergency vehicle.

The blue and red one lifted his hand and put it next to the branch she was on. Cahira hesitated for a moment, a 30 foot fall would not kill her, but it would hurt. Taking a deep breath she stepped onto the hand. She caught her balance on the robot's, Optimus, if she heard correctly, thumb as the hand started to move. Optimus brought her over to the robot that spoke before; she thought this one might be Ratchet, if this was the one Chromia asked about earlier. The one she thought was Ratchet put his hand out as Optimus brought her closer. She tentatively stepped from Optimus's hand to Ratchet's.

"Ah, man, can't you speed it up a little Ratchet?" the silver one said, sounding like a gangster.

Chromia hit him upside the head. "Jazz, that's s human who somehow managed to climb that tree with a broken rib and a sprained ankle, if Ironhide and my scanners are correct. And that is not even the extent of her injuries."

"Mah bad. I didn' know Chromia. Don' hit meh!" he said, ducking another swipe of Chromia's hand. Cahira giggled lightly at their antics.

"Knock it off you two." Ratchet said. Cahira felt an energy pass over her, similar to what she felt Ironhide do to her earlier, only more extensive. She shuddered at the feel of it, it did not hurt, it was just…different. Ratchet startled her when he began growling.

"What is it Ratchet?" Chromia asked, worried.

"She shouldn't even be standing. The girl has internal injuries, two broken ribs, a sprained ankle and a cracked skull, and that's just the beginning." Ratchet replied and the other's started growling as well. "Sarah, I must request that I be allowed to take her to my med bay to treat her." Ratchet said looking at Sarah. Ironhide picked up Will and Sarah and began the trek back to the house.

"Ask Cay, Ratchet. She's an adult, much as I hate to admit it." Sarah told him.

Ratchet turned his head to look at the human standing in his hand. "I thought humans needed to be 18 years of age to be an adult? Regardless, I request that you come to my med bay so I can treat you properly."

"I'll be 19 next month." Cahira said, glaring up at Ratchet, and then seemed to think better of it. He was carrying her after all. "And where is this med bay of yours?"

Ratchet looked at Will. "It's near here. If you want I'll go with." Will told her, sitting comfortably in Ironhide's hand.

"Nah, that's alright." She looked up at the mech holding her, "I'll go to your med bay." Turning back to Will she winced and asked, "Where's Annabelle?"

"With Sam and Mikaela. Bumblebee is Sam's guardian." Will explained, "Bumblebee is the yellow and black mech over there." Cahira nodded, not really understanding. She sat down in Ratchet's hand, taking shallow breaths.

Ratchet was concerned about the human in his hand, she had to be in pain, and she was moving way too much for his liking. One of her broken ribs was close to puncturing her lung. When she sat down on his hand he ran another scan on her. His findings were not to his liking. He began walking faster; he wanted this human in his med bay as soon as possible. He already liked her; she was not intimidated by them, or, at least, she was not afraid to speak her mind. As Ratchet got to the road, Cahira skin had taken on a grayish color and she was having a hard time breathing. It looked as if that rib punctured her lung. Ratchet turned to Jazz, who had ran after Ratchet, and gingerly set Cahira in his hand. Ratchet transformed into his alt form and instructed Jazz to place Cahira in the back.

As soon as Cahira was secure Ratchet took off, tires squealing. Jazz transformed and took off after him. Wondering why this human affected him so; Jazz just hoped the Hatchet could fix her so he could get answers.

The others were left to stare after the rescue Hummer and the Solstice speeding off. Soon they began to trail behind at a slower pace, Bumblebee picking up Sam and Mikaela and Ironhide taking Will, Sarah and Annabelle, Sarah relenting for once about Annabelle's car seat.

Cahira hurt, it was hard to breath. It should not have been that hard. She did not think yelling at a 20 foot robot would hurt as bad as it did. The jarring of the road they were on did not help much. She moaned. There was that strange energy again. Then she heard Ratchet's voice.

"Stay still, you've punctured a lung. We're almost there." She felt the vehicle shift dangerously as it took a hard left, and ground her teeth to keep from crying out. "Sorry." The vehicle slowed to a stop, she heard another vehicle pull up. Cahira concentrated on keeping the encroaching blackness at bay, she knew what a punctured lung meant and she was not going to pass out. She lost track of time and her whereabouts and the next thing she knew Cahira was on a table with Ratchet standing over her.

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><p>"How are you feeling, little human?" There was concern in the tone, something that seemed to contradict to words used. It sounded like something out of a sci-fi movie, <em>which<em>, she supposed, _is pretty much what I'm now living in._ At that moment it hit her how absurd the reality of her situation was. If someone had told her two days ago that her car was an alien robot and that said alien race was more concerned about her after meeting her all of ten minutes than her own father was, she would have directed them to the nearest mental facility for a psych evaluation. Cahira burst out in hysterical laughter. Ratchet looked confused and apprehensive, questioning her mental stability.

Cahira saw the look on his face and calmed herself, shaking her head. "I'm fine. I'm just as sane as I was before I met you guys, which I suppose isn't all that much, but hey, life goes on." She twisted after realizing she had no pain after her outburst of laughter, there was still no pain. "How long was I out for? Broken bones take weeks to heal…" she trailed off, looking at Ratchet for an explanation.

Ratchet's optics seemed to dim for a moment. "You were 'out' for about six hours. Your human medicine is so primitive." Cahira raised an eyebrow, she knew that the regeneration of cells required to heal a bone took weeks to occur. She had her share of broken bones over the years and then some.

"Six hours?" the skepticism in her voice was apparent.

Ratchet looked at the little human, she was small for her age, probably from the malnourishment he found evidence of, and there was evidence of untreated injuries sustained in the past. He concluded she was neglected as a child and quite possibly beaten. Her mental stability worried him though. She took finding out about them too well in his opinion, and her response that 'life goes on' made him wonder what exactly this _child_ had been put through to give her such a defeatist attitude.

"Do you want me to explain exactly how I forced your cells to regenerate? Or how I had to perform surgery to repair your lung? You humans have so much blood; it is amazing how you survive at all. You are far too delicate and…"

"Okay! Okay, I believe you. Spare me the technical jargon, _please_. And I am _not_ delicate. By the way my name is Cahira. Cay for short. So stop calling me little human and the like." She half glared up at him. "When can I get out of here? Sorry, but right now everything feels so surreal and having everything seem like it's taken out of the fourth world of Super Mario 3 isn't helping any."

Ratchet put his hand next to the edge of the table she was on. "You may leave now, but I want to you stay near a bot for a while. In case I missed something, they have a way of contacting me as quick as possible." Cahira stepped onto his hand and Ratchet walked out the door.

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><p>Cahira was never as glad as she was then that she had not inherited her mother's fear of heights. It was odd. She had not known the Autobots for even a day and she felt more attachment to them than her own flesh and blood. Maybe it was the fact that they actually seemed to care, but she was going to stay on guard, she had been fooled before and was not going to fall for a trick again. She did not think her heart could handle it.<p>

As the two entered what seemed to be a common area, Cahira was later informed it was the rec room, everyone seemed to drop what they were doing to stare at Ratchet. Then, as if by some unheard cue, everyone started asking questions. The noise was deafening.

"How is she-?"

"Is she alright-"

"Ratchet, what is the status of the human femme?"

The silver bot, Jazz, if she remembered correctly was the only one to notice her presence and held his hand to her. Cahira stepped onto his hand without thinking. No one seemed to notice. She began to climb up his arm, and sat on his shoulder.

"Sorry, but do you think we can split? They're giving me a headache, and I really don't want to be fed to the lions yet." Cahira asked him. He nodded and they left the room Cahira still on his shoulder.

Cahira waited until they were out of the building before speaking. "I don't know if anyone told you but my name is Cahira, Cay for short. You probably were able to figure that out but it makes me feel less like an asshole if I actually introduce myself. And I'm rambling now, okay, I'm just going to shut up now."

Jazz chuckled lightly. "I know who you are. Kinda hard not to when Sarah was that hysterical. I'm Jazz."

"I know. Chromia said your name when she was chewing you out earlier. You're talking different," she tilted her head to the side trying to figure out the difference, "not like a wanna-be gangster anymore." She began laughing at his indignant expression, and had to quickly grab on to his armor as he shifted abruptly."Hey, human sitting on shoulder, watch it."

"Yeh won' fall, little bitch. I'll catch ya if ya do." Jazz replied.

She slapped his faceplate lightly, aware that he was made of metal and she had no desire to explain to Ratchet how she broke her hand on Jazz's face. "Don't call me a bitch; even if I can be one at times, it just isn't nice. And I think I liked it better when you weren't acting like a hard ass."

"Why would I be acting like a hard donkey?" Jazz asked, thoroughly confused, especially when Cay started laughing again.

"Never mind. Just look up hard ass on urban dictionary when you get a chance." Cay paused and looked out at the twilight landscape. She noticed Jazz's optics dim for a moment. "It's funny, everything here looks so peaceful, but it's just another day. Maybe I'm just sentimental after another brush with death. I finally get away from him and he still finds a way to hurt me." Jazz lifted her off his shoulder and sat near a tree, placing Cay on his lap.

"Who?"

Cay did not know why she was telling this being she just met her life story but her instincts told her she could trust him. They had not let her down yet and so she continued. "My father, although he's more of a sperm donor than anything."

Jazz growled, "You mean to say that the one who hurt you was your male creator?"

"Yeah," Cay replied, unnerved at his anger.

"Why? How could anyone do that to a sparkling? Least of all their own? Humans are very strange. How could anyone hurt you? From what I've seen you are very easy to get along with and are relatively harmless."

Cay laughed, "I am definitely not harmless, especially if I get mad. And the main reason was I reminded him of my mother." Seeing his incomprehension she added, "She died when I was 10. Car accident, she was hit by a drunk driver. Ironically, he started drinking after that. I look like her, and he didn't like the reminder that I was a mini-Clarisse, so he decided if he couldn't change my looks, he was going to make sure I didn't act like her. Mom was a spitfire, true to the redhead stereotype. He tried to make me submissive and it worked for a while. Actually it worked up until a week ago when I decided to up and leave."

Jazz took time to study the femme. She was short, about 5', had deep auburn hair, and blue-green eyes. She was thinner than he thought she should be, but according to the internet she was very pretty. He vaguely wondered if she had this anorexia that seemed to plague teenage girls, but she did not seem to be the type of girl to intentionally starve to look pretty.

Cay noticed his optics dim, and wondered what caused it; she had a short internal debate and decided to ask the mech in front of her. "Hey Jazz? Can I ask you something?"

Jazz disconnected from the internet and looked at the little femme. She was curled up around herself, as if warding off something. It hurt his spark to see this femme go from full of energy and life, to being afraid. The fact that it was _him_ she was afraid of made it even worse. "Sure." He replied softly, bringing up a hand to rub her back. He almost stopped upon seeing her flinch, but continued to lightly pet the femme trying to get her to relax.

"Why do your optics dim like that?" She asked in a small voice, still tense.

"What do you mean?"

"It's like you space out." His optics dimmed as he accessed the internet to find out what 'space out' meant. "Like that."

"Oh, I was just accessing the world wide web for some information." His fingertip continued its trail up and down her back. He heard and felt her relax and giggle slightly. "What?"

"You can call it the internet or the web, if you want. Most people do."

Jazz hated how the little femme in his lap was so distant now. He did not know what caused her to retreat into herself but he was determined to get her to open up again. He may have succeeded had 'Bee and 'Hide not come up to them, carrying their respective charges. Chromia and Ratchet were trailing along behind them.

Cay slid off Jazz's leg, startling him, he reached out a hand to catch her but he knew he would not be able to catch her; she just bent her knees as she hit the ground softening the impact and looked up at him confused. "What?" she looked around. The other bots were looking at her, as well as the two in Bumblebee's hand and Will. Sarah was far too used to her 'reckless acts' to bat an eye at the display but still worried as she had just recovered from a punctured lung and a sprained ankle.

As soon as Ironhide set Sarah down she was running to check Cay over. Will had Annabelle in his arms. Cay tried to ward off her friend, but she was unsuccessful. "I'm fine, Sarah. Ratchet patched my up better than new."

"You need to be more careful. You're going to get seriously hurt one of these days." Sarah said, after ascertaining that she really was all in one piece with no lingering injuries. "Besides I don't want you to teach Annabelle to do the things you do."

"Aww, but I wanted to be the cool aunt who did all the stuff you were afraid to do with her." Cay mock whined.

"Don't you dare. I had enough near heart attacks being your friend with the stunts you pulled as a kid. I don't want know what our mothers went through with your antics, no thank you."

Cay felt Ratchet scan her again. Turning to look up at him she said, "So what's the verdict doc, did I do any damage?"

"Only you, Cay." Sarah muttered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Cay demanded, overplaying the childish act just like when they were kids.

"Only you could be so comfortable around giant alien robots who could squish you if they misstep after knowing them less than a day. You do realize they are three to six times your height and God only knows how much weight they have on you."

The bots were confused at the conversation and Will had rarely seen this side of his wife, the other two humans were fighting laughter as they had never seen someone disarm mamma bear Sarah Lennox so easily.

Jazz watched in amusement as his little femme brightened again. And she was able to take on Sarah Lennox and win was amazing, Ironhide could not do that and he usually shot anything that disagreed with him, or at least threatened to do so.

Annabelle squirmed in her Daddy's arms. She wanted to be put down. Her new Auntie was over there and she wanted to be in Auntie's arms. She knew something was wrong with Auntie when everyone rushed to see her, and Momma was acting like she did when Daddy and Unca 'Hide did something silly. Once her Daddy put her down she ran as fast as she could to Auntie.

Cay saw Bella running toward her and scooped her up before Annabelle ran into her, automatically settling the toddler on her hip. Sarah gave Cay a look.

"Why are you so comfortable with Bella? You shouldn't be instinctively picking her up and anticipating the things she will do." Sarah fixed Cay with a stare that would have made even Ironhide flinch. Cay did not even blink.

"I used to babysit for the people down the street for some extra cash until I got a real job. They had twin toddlers. Bella is a cake walk compared to those little heathens." The bots looked at the humans. Were human femmes not preprogrammed to deal with offspring?

Cay began walking back to the base; well she assumed it was a base, although it looked abandoned, with Bella sitting contently on her hip. It did not take long for Bella to fall asleep against her. She heard one of the bots come up near her. She looked to the right to see a silver Solstice with no driver. Based on the coloring she guessed this was Jazz. It was confirmed as his voice flowed over to her.

"Wanna ride? Pretty little thing like you shouldn't be walking by herself. Somethin' migh' happ'n to ya."

Cay rolled her eyes and muttered "Lady-killer," but got in the passenger seat, shifting Bella to her lap, careful not to wake her up.

"You walk fast for a human, and you have a sparkling to carry." Jazz said, breaking the silence.

"She's light, besides I'm stronger than I look. You don't have to sound so surprised."

Jazz went quiet for the rest of the ride back to base. He decided to observe the femme for a while to find out more about her. She obviously knew Sarah Lennox for a while, given her level of comfort around the older femme. She also was broken, or at least very close to it. Her spirit was making a valiant effort to stay whole, but Jazz wanted to know what caused the damage in the first place. He watched how careful she was with the little sparkling as she got out of him, gave a small wave and walked into the base.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Alright heres Ch 3. Thanks to everyone who alerted or faved my story. And special thanks to Roc2Roll for being my first review.

Disclaimer: I'm a poor college student, if I owned this do you think I would be posting it on a fanfiction site? I don't own anything, unfortunately, except Cahira, I do own her.

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><p>Chapter 3<p>

The next several months passed in a blur for Cahira. She got to know the Autobots and get a more detailed Q & A session with them. Ratchet was watching her like a hawk after he found out her practically nonexistent medical history, and given the extent of the long term damage her father inflicted on her, he was surprised she was as functional as she was. Jazz had become closer to her, and was thinking about asking Prime to become her guardian. Chormia and Ironhide were making up for lost time getting reacquainted with each other. They had scarred the younger generation and the teens for life. But all in all everything was going good for Cay and that set her on edge.

Cay was feeling somewhat trapped. She was used to having to fight for everything and here she had Sarah to look after her just like when they were kids. They had been close even with the five year age gap between them, and Sarah was always mothering her. She felt lost. She had found an old crotch rocket in the barn and fixed it up without anyone knowing. She snuck out when Ironhide had taken Sarah and Bella somewhere and Will was stuck at the base 'suffering through the worst form of torture' in other words doing paperwork, and drove off. The feeling of riding fast and being in total control was something she needed right now. The bots and Sarah treated her like she would break at a moment's notice and it hurt to think they thought that she couldn't take care of herself.

She sped off towards the coastal ranges; she would head to the beach to escape the suffocating feeling and to process all that happened since she met the Autobots. She was not paying much attention to her surroundings and missed the Saleen police cruiser that pulled up behind her. She did not miss when said cruiser nearly tapped her back tire. The edgy feeling she had before intensified. This was not normal police behavior. There were no lights flashing nor was there a siren blaring at her. She needed to get away from the mustang; that much she knew.

The next road she made a hard right, scraping the peg on the ground. The cruiser was traveling too fast to follow her immediately; she took the next two rights in order to get back to the highway. She opened the throttle when she pulled back onto the highway. The road was open in front of her; or at least it was until an F22 dropped directly in her path, transforming as it neared the ground. There was no way around it she was on a collision course with one of the mech's (at least she thought it was a mech) legs. There were slight odds she would make it but it was her only chance. She aimed for between its legs and prayed to any deity that was listening that she would survive. Glancing up just before she passed under the bot, her eyes locked with blood red optics that held a promise of pain, then she was behind the decepticon.

Cahira wished that she had never left the base or at least told someone where she was going, but hindsight is 20/20 as they say. She raced back to towards the base; she was not going to stop for anything, she would deal with the consequences later, the two decepticons on her tail took precedence at the moment.

There was a silver Pontiac Solstice heading towards her, and she wistfully wished it was Jazz. Then she realized there were a yellow Camaro, a black Topkick and a Chevy Silverado behind it. She made sure the throttle was wide open and sped past them flipping Jazz off as she passed knowing it would get his attention. She barely heard the squeal of tires above the roar of the wind. In her mirror she saw the vehicles pull a 180 in feat of maneuverability that a normal one would have rolled performing. She never slowed down even as the vehicles pulled up near her. That bad feeling she had earlier came back full force and she hit the brake just enough to make a hard left as a police mustang rocketed out from the right.

She leaned into the curves of the road as she headed further north; trying to keep ahead of the cruiser. When she had the chance she quickly scanned the skies for that F22 from earlier. The fact that there was no sign of it did nothing to ease her tension. She glanced in the mirror and saw Bumblebee transform and tackle the Mustang. Jazz swung around the brawling bots as Chromia and 'Hide joined 'Bee in taking down the cruiser. She saw 'Hide aim his cannon skyward and shoot. The F22 got a shot in at her before it broke off to dodge 'Hide's fire. She dodged to the left and felt fragments of the asphalt pepper her right side. Jazz stayed behind her.

Cay took another highway and headed east. She needed to find cover; this open farmland was not cutting it. She bypassed the freeway that would lead back to base, confusing Jazz. Her path lead her into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada's. Once the trees became thick enough, she pulled off on a side road, careful of the dirt path. After she judged herself far enough in she parked the bike and removed her helmet. She made sure the bike was hidden by some brush. Turning she saw Jazz transform, confusion showing clearly on his faceplates.

"Where did ya learn ta drive like that?" wonder evident in Jazz's voice, as he examined the femme before him like he was seeing her for the first time.

"Instinct." Cay was feeling the exhaustion set in as the adrenaline high wore off. Jazz scooped up his little femme and set her on his shoulder. Cay automatically grabbed on to the shoulder plates to steady herself. "Mind if we head into the forest a bit and rest?"

Jazz was worried about Cay, but headed into the forest carefully, leaving as little of a trail as an Autobot could. He found a small clearing and sat down leaning against an oak tree. Once he was settled Cay slid down his chest to stand on his leg, wobbling a bit in her exhaustion. Before Jazz could say anything she said, "Can I take a short nap before we play 20 questions? There is no way I can do it now." And curled up against his stomach on his leg.

Jazz was running scan after scan on his little femme, trying to figure out what was going on. Her prediction of Barricades movement was phenomenal and that she was able to evade him and Starscream was amazing. He commed Ratchet and asked him to look over the results of the scans, then settled in to wait until Cay woke up.

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><p>Ratchet was in his med bay preparing everything for the arrivals later in the week. Sideswipe's twin, Sunstreaker was supposed to show up in this wave. When Jazz commed him, he vented his air tanks in an imitation of a human sigh, what had the bot gone and done this time? When Jazz asked him to look over the results of his scans on Cahira he was concerned. Cahira always knew when they were scanning her, even when asleep, but there was no sign of her indignation to being woken up. All Ratchet could conclude from the scans were that Cahira was severely exhausted, there were abnormal amounts of adrenaline in her bloodstream and…<em>that can't be correct, <em>there were signs of energon in her bloodstream as well.

Ratchet immediately commed Jazz back and told him to get his aft back to base so he could examine Cahira.

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><p>Jazz was now extremely worried. Ratchet had a note of urgency in his voice that only showed up when there was something <em>wrong<em>. He carefully lifted his femme off his leg and transformed around her. She was sleeping in his passenger seat. He activated his holo driver and took off towards base. Cay never stirred the whole time.

Ratchet met Jazz outside the building that housed the med bay and gently took Cay from Jazz disappearing through the door. Jazz stood there staring at the door waiting to know what was going on with his little femme.

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><p>Cahira woke up to the sight to Ratchet's med bay. Her head felt like someone was hitting the inside of her skull with a blunt object, repeatedly. She slowly sat up, the pounding in her head got slightly worse. Looking around she could find no sign of the medbot. However, it seemed as though the twins were attempting to paint one of the walls pink, but were only succeeding in painting themselves. She could see Jazz over by the door, obviously debating if defying Ratchet's orders were worth it. She lifted one hand and waved at him, "What are you doing?" she deliberately left off his name.<p>

The twins froze at the sound of her voice; it looked like something out of a cartoon. Skids was half pink balancing on one foot holding Mudflap in a headlock, while Mudflap had his helm and left leg pink and was holding Skids' right leg. Both looked at Cahira, optics wide, "It wasn't us." They looked at each other, "He started it." And their fight continued, Cay laughed lightly.

"You're awake." Jazz's voice came from beside her, making Cay jump slightly.

"Well, yeah. Know where docbot is so I can get out of here? By the way, you might want to tell the twins to get lost cause knowing Ratch, he'll be back soon anyway." She said looking up at Jazz, willing the conga line in her head to disband; needless to say it was not working very well.

"Yo, you two, get yo sorry afts outta here, 'les you wanna be here when Hatchet comes back; I just commed him." Jazz said to the twins making them freeze for half a moment to process what he said, then ran out the door as quickly as possible. Jazz watched as Cay rubbed her head. "You alright?"

"I'm fine. It's just a slight headache. Give me a couple Advil and I'll be good to go." She said.

"I will be the judge of that missy. I need to run another scan on you now that you are awake." Ratchet said. He heard the end of Cahira's response as he walked in.

"Missy?" Cahira blinked at Ratchet. "Uh, where did you learn that? Please don't tell me it was the internet."

"Was that incorrect? I thought it was supposed to be a term for a young femme." Ratchet asked as he ran a scan on Cahira, seeing her flinch slightly as the energy passed over her.

"No you used it correctly, it's just I wasn't expecting it from you. It's mostly used to indicate a girl is in trouble, mock or real, or as a nickname. It was just odd hearing it from you, Ratch."

"What makes you think you are in trouble? Hold still for this next scan."

Cahira froze and suppressed her usual flinch when she felt the energy of the scan. When it was done she replied with "Not in trouble, per se, but you always scold me for not taking care of myself and I know you heard me say I just needed a couple Advil. So you calling me missy was a slight reprimand without actually being a reprimand. It's kind of hard to explain." She looked at Jazz and Ratchet to see the incomprehension on their faceplates. "Just forget it. File it away as one of those human idiosyncrasies."

Jazz looked like he wanted to press Cay further, but opted against it as Ratchet was still there. He seemed to have a look of confusion on his faceplates.

"What is it Ratch?" Cay asked the medibot receiving no response. "Ratch? Earth to Ratchet, come in Ratchet." Still no response, "Okay, now you're scaring me Ratch." When Cay still had no response she walked to the edge of the berth and grabbed the nearest item she could lift and chucked it as hard as she could at him. Jazz just stared at her in horror.

The impact of whatever Cay threw seemed to knock Ratchet out of whatever trance he was in. He looked at her. "So, you going to tell me what had you on the verge of a processer crash?" she looked at Ratchet as if daring him to comment on her method of gaining his attention.

"There seems to be energon in your bloodstream. Did you have any contact with Barricade or Starscream?" He asked her.

She thought to the decepticons that attacked her and the chase. She slowly shook her head as she replayed it in her mind. "No, they never were able to touch me. The only thing that might have something to do with it was Starscream's missed shot where I got peppered with shrapnel." She stopped, knowing by the look on Ratchet's faceplates that she said something wrong.

"What do you mean 'peppered with shrapnel'?" Ratchet asked a hard edge to his voice.

Cahira cringed and curled in on herself. "Starscream took a potshot at me on a back road. It missed, but the debris from the road and whatever he shot scrapped up my right side…" she looked at her right arm where she knew there was a cut deep enough to leave a scar even with Ratchet treating her.

Jazz's optics brightened slightly as he realized what she was talking about. "I know what you are talking about now. I thought it was rather strange that you had no injuries but you were driving like no human I have ever seen, internet or no."

"What do you mean Jazz?" Ratchet turned to silver mech. Jazz sent a data pack with a copy of his memory from the time Cay flipped him off until she parked the motorcycle. Ratchet watched it, and looked down at Cay, incredulity written all over his expression. "How did you predict their movements?"

Cay shrugged. "I dunno. I just knew when to move. I was a little busy trying to stay alive than analyze what exactly was giving me the ability to stay alive. Call it intuition if you want. Just tell me what's wrong with me now. What does me having energon in my blood have to do with anything?"

"Energon is toxic to humans, at least the consumption of it is. There should be some negative side effects to you having it in your bloodstream. However, your body seems to have adapted and is actually utilizing it. It's fascinating but completely impossible. If Prowl were here he would have had a processer crash. I would have if you had not thrown that bolt at me."

"That was a bolt? Damn that was the size of a baseball bat. Well almost. It was damn heavy, that's all I know. And Ratch haven't you ever heard the saying 'there is no such thing as impossible, merely improbable'?" Cay said.

Jazz was watching his little femme take the Hatchet on and not end up with a wrench to the head. He was definitely sharing this with Sunny and Sides when he got the chance. They would pay to see Hatchet disarmed by a being he could easily crush, not that Ratchet would ever harm a human but it was the principle of the matter. He now knew how to get Hatchet to back down. Sic Cay on him.

"Yes but there is…"

Cay cut Ratchet off, "No, there _is _no such thing as impossible. There may be astronomical odds against it occurring but nothing is ever truly impossible. Many of the mechs would say I'm doing the impossible right now. Winning an argument against you." She giggled at Ratchet's expression. "C'mon you know you would have thrown a wrench at any other mech by now. Hey, question, can you tell how long the energon has been in my bloodstream?"

"I would have to take a sample but I could determine when you first had energon introduced to your body." Ratchet replied. In response, Cay stuck her arm out. If Ratchet had an eyebrow he would have raised.

"Draw some blood, Ratch. I have a theory but I wanna make sure first. Energon is the pink stuff, ri-correct?" Cay asked.

"Yeah, how did you know that? We made sure to keep energon away from you humans." Jazz answered. Cay did not answer, she had a puzzled look on her face that made Jazz wonder what was going through his little femme's head. Meanwhile, Ratchet took a small sample of her blood to analyze.

"Where did you learn to ride a motorcycle? You never told me you could. Where did you get it anyway?" Jazz had wanted to ask Cay some questions for a while; these seemed to be the easiest to start off with.

"I fixed the bike up in the barn, found it there. As to when I learned to ride, well, I've had my license since I was 18. I paid for the classes soon after my birthday. Kind of a belated birthday present to myself. I didn't tell anyone I left because…because well, I was feeling…overwhelmed I guess would be the best way to put it. I never really got the chance to fully process everything and then everyone has been treating me like I'm made of glass and I hate that. So when I found the bike I knew I had my escape…maybe that's not the best word," she amended seeing the hurt look on Jazz's faceplates, "more it was my way of letting go. To get my thoughts and emotions in order and figure out what I really wanted. I know I should have told someone, but I didn't think there was any danger to taking a drive." She shrugged her shoulders, "Now I have a question of my own. How the hell did you find me?"

Jazz looked sheepish? She did not know that the mech's faceplates could make that expression. "Uh, I kinda tracked ya. Ya kinda been actin' funny fo' a c'upla days now, and I thought sumthin' migh' be up wit how fast you was goin'. So I," Jazz rubbed the back of his helm, a habit he picked up from humans, "took off after ya. Mia, Hide and Bee followed me when I took off."

"Okay, but I know I wasn't going that fast until…Barricade? Nearly tapped my back tire, there's no way you would have made it that far between then and where I met up with you guys. Unless…are you always monitoring me? Cause that's kinda creepy and stalkerish."

Jazz vented his air tanks; he had hoped she would not bring it up. This was not something that he wanted to explain yet. "I was worried about you. Your GPS signal was heading away from the base and I thought you might've been taken by the Cons." Cay had an odd expression on her face. "I've been wanting to ask you if it would be alright it I became your guardian?" Jazz still had no clue how to read the emotions flashing across Cay's face. "If ya don' want meh to, I'll understand." Cay's face became blank and her eyes became unreadable.

"Why?"

Jazz was taken aback at the question. What was she asking him? "Why what?"

"Why would you want to guard me? Why do you care so much? I'm not exactly important or really worth much. I'm just a short, useless girl who is in way over her head and can't really be much help with anything."

"You're not useless and you are important," Jazz hissed in a low voice that made Cay freeze. Hiding the flash of fear she felt, she looked up at him studying his faceplates looking for any sign of deceit.

Finally she sighed, looking down, she said, "Sorry. It's just…never mind."

"Never mind what?" Jazz questioned.

What ever Cay may have said was prevented by the thud of Ratchet hitting the floor. The two stared. Cay ran to the edge of the berth and peered down at Ratchet.

"You know how to turn him back on?" She inquired.

Jazz shook his head, staring in disbelief.

Cay began to climb down from the berth startling Jazz. She jumped the last few feet to the ground, ignoring the wave of dizziness. Walking over to Ratchet, she examined his neck joint. Finding what she was looking for; she pressed a series of buttons.

Ratchet gave a groan as his systems came back online. He raised his hand to his head in an imitation of a human with a headache. He heard a soft giggle and looked for the source, finding it in the form of the small femme that caused his processor to crash.

"So what did yeh fin' tha' caused yo processor ta crash, Hatch?" Jazz asked the medic, who was still lying on the floor.

Ratchet sat up and stared at the little femme. It had to be impossible. It was inconceivable. "The energon had been in your blood for nearly 15 years. Your body is producing it naturally. It's just not possible."

"Thought so. Mom was kind of…strange would be the best way to put it I guess. She had, well, not visions per se, more like premonitions. She had this vial of pink stuff that she said was energy for beings much greater than ourselves, and that one day I would know what it was for and what to do with it. Said it had been in the family for years." She tailed off, lost in thought.

"That still doesn't explain how it ended up in your blood."

"Oh," Cay was startled out of her thoughts, "well the first vial wasn't exactly secure, it broke when I was four and I cut my self on the glass. You said it's toxic to humans, right? It hurt like hell and I was sick for a few days, but nothing really happened because of it. And no I don't know how she got a hold of it. All she would tell me was I would understand one day and to keep it safe. She gave me the vial about a week before she was killed. It's at Sarah's. It didn't seem appropriate to wear it."

"I would like to see this vial. I want to know who made it." Ratchet looked at Cay. Jazz looked confused.

"Sure, but first don't I need your clearance to leave?" She raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm reckless but I am not suicidal."

* * *

><p>After a quick scan and declaring her fit to leave the base, Cahira was being driven to the Lennox residence in Jazz. She relaxed in the driver's seat, one hand on the wheel pretending to drive.<p>

"You gonna tell meh where ya learned to drive?" Jazz's voice flowed out of the speakers.

Blinking at the sudden question Cahira replied, "Through school, like most people." She stared at the dash with a look of trepidation.

"I don't know any other human who could pull the stunts you did escaping Barricade today. Where did you learn that?"

"Uh." She did not know how much to tell him, nor could she really explain it. "I just knew." She felt her seat jar a bit. "Hey, I can't explain it; it was instinct. Something told me to do it, and that I could feasibly do it. I didn't really stop to think about what I was doing, I just did it. Look, I drive like a bat out of hell, I know, but it was more than just quick reactions, it was like I could _see_ what he would do before he did it. Then that psychotic jet showed up and everything when to hell." She gave a sigh at the end of her rant. "What's wrong with me, Jazz?" she said in a small voice.

"There ain't nothing wrong with you." Cahira glared at the dash and gave it a light smack. "Okay, maybe it is something, but it's not anything that will change you. The amount of energon in you should have killed you, but it didn't. Ratchet wants to know how it's possible, I do too."

"Great, another thing to make me a freak." She muttered, leaning further back in the seat, crossing her arms, not even pretending to drive anymore. She felt Jazz scan her, and snapped at him. "I'm fine. Would you quit scanning me like I'm some china doll that's gonna break at the slightest touch."

Jazz pulled off the road and into the drive of the Lennox home. As soon as he slowed enough, Cahira opened the door and jumped out of the still moving Jazz. If she had not spent the last half of her life walking on eggshells, she would have stomped to the door. Jazz activated his holoform and followed her to the door.

Cahira walked down the hall to the guest bedroom, silently fuming at the world. Everything was unraveling around her. She had always been an outcast due to her father and her need to hide the marks, then she came here and it felt everything was going great and that had set her on edge. She should have known it would be too good to last, and now it seemed she was not completely human anymore due to a freak accident as a child. Everyone was treating her like she would break at a moment's notice. It was driving her nuts. She would have to find somewhere new to go; she had already burdened Sarah too much.

She grabbed the duffel she had brought with her and began to throw everything in it. She grabbed her butterfly knife and flipped it open. She remembered when she stole it from her father's knife collection, earned her one hell of a beating but it at least gave her a method of defense, from there she taught herself how to actually use it without cutting herself in the process. Normally she always kept it on her, but due to the Autobot's presence she had taken to leaving it in the bedside drawer.

"Where'd you get that?"

Jumping and bringing the knife into a defensive position, she saw a man in the doorway. He was tanned and had short black hair, looked to be about mid-twenties. He was dressed in a white t-shirt that showed his muscles and low cut jeans. She felt the same energy around him as-

"Jazz?" she blinked, and then flipped the knife closed. Looking down at the knife in her hand, she said, "Souvenir from daddy dearest, well, I pulled a five finger discount out of his collection about two years ago. Nice holo by the way."

"How do you know it's really me? I could be anyone."

"The spark energy around you, at least I'm pretty sure that's what I'm feeling. It can't be duplicated. You feel the same as the Solstice sitting outside. Ergo, you are Jazz." She slipped the knife into her boot and continued to throw everything she owned into the duffel.

"What are yeh doing?" Jazz paused and looked at the duffel again, "Are you leaving?"

The hurt in his voice was like a stab to the heart. She paused in the middle of folding a shirt, and heaved a sigh, "Jazz, I can't stay here. I've imposed on Sarah long enough and I don't want to drag her into what ever mess I've ended up in this time. I just can't do that to her. So, yes, I'm leaving, but not for good." Grabbing her mother's necklace off the dresser, she tossed it to Jazz. "That's the energon I encountered as a child." She zipped up the duffel and threw it over her shoulder.

Cahira stepped around Jazz and walked to the kitchen. Grabbing a pen and paper she scribbled a quick note telling Sarah not to worry about her and walked out the door. Glancing at the road she decided to head into town. Maybe she could find a cheap apartment and a job. She had barely made it to the end of the drive when she heard Jazz pull up beside her.

"Are you gonna walk where ever it is you're gonna go?" He asked.

"Yeah, it's not that far to town, I'm gonna get a job and look for an apartment. It's what I planned on doing in the first place." She heard the engine whine. "Jazz, it's not about you or any of the Autobots, it's the fact that I've been completely dependant on Sarah these past few months and that is exactly what I didn't want." She trailed her hand lightly over the door of the solstice.

"Why don't we go back to base and you can stay there. I'm sure Ratchet would love to take you as an apprentice. Primus knows you already know more about us than Mikaela and she's known about us since the beginning." Jazz was pleading with her.

"There's just one problem with that Jazz. I'm a civilian, while I can visit the base, I technically can't live there. Hell, if it weren't for the fact that you guys carry me into restricted areas, I would have already been in serious trouble."

"Let's talk to Prime, I'm sure he can pull some strings to get clearance for you to stay on base. 'Sides you know the Hatchet's gonna wanna make sure that energon's not doing anything that's gonna hurt you."

Cay let out a small laugh. "You really don't want me to leave." She stopped and stared at the holo in the car. "You were serious." She could not wrap her head around anyone thinking she was worth guarding. At Jazz's confused look, she elaborated, "In Ratch's med bay. When you said you wanted to become my guardian."

"Of course I was serious. Iah wouldn't joke about that." He was offended she would think that.

She rolled her eyes, walked around him, and opened the passenger door. "You took that the wrong way. I meant your reasons for wanting to be my guardian. It's a little strange to have people who actually care about me." She climbed in placing her duffel on her lap. "Let's see what Op can do and I'll talk to Ratch after he analyzes that sample which is where?"

In response to her question, the glove compartment opened up. She grabbed the small vial of pink liquid. Then surprising even herself she reached over and gave holo-Jazz a sideways hug. "Thank you."

Jazz was even more confused. "What for?"

"For not giving up on me. Making me see that I was running away again because things were getting hard to handle. For just being there, take your pick." She leaned back into the seats, making herself comfortable. She felt the seat tighten around her slightly and a small smile of contentment appeared on her face.

Jazz was processing all that his little femme had revealed today. She had reasons to be as guarded as she was, but apparently he and Ratchet were getting through it. That knife was something that worried him though. She handled it too well for it to be something she had just in case. Her reaction to his holo was a bit unnerving as well. She could _feel_ spark energy? He had never heard of something like that before, human or Cybertronian. The closest would be spark bonds between spark mates, but they could only feel each other. She could feel everybot's spark energy; he would have to mention this to Ratchet when they got back. He glanced at the small femme in the passenger seat and was shocked to see how content she seemed to be in his seat.


	4. Chapter 4

Here's the next chapter, sorry its so short. My muse has decided to abandon me on this chapter and it was hard to write. Again thanks to everyone who reviewed, alerted or faved. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, I don't own it.

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><p>Ratchet took the vial of energon from Jazz and received a data burst letting him know that Cahira could tell them apart by their <em>spark energy<em>. Cahira also explained why she had her entire life in a duffel bag and that she was leaving to find a job and apartment when Jazz convinced her to come to base and see if they could find some way of contracting her to work here as a civilian. Jazz mentioned that Ratchet once said he wished Cay was an Autobot so that they might have a second medic onsite. Ratchet and Jazz decided to talk to Optimus at first chance, Ratchet had almost jumped at the chance to teach Cahira, even if she was a human, there would be some procedures that would be much easier for her than any bot.

Optimus was very surprised when his CMO and Lieutenant came to him requesting to get Cahira clearance to learn to be a human medic for the Autobots. He listened to Jazz's story of what happened at the Lennox home and what Cahira told him. While it was true the girl could run circles around Earth tech, he was unsure if she would be able to handle an injured bot, but somehow the two convinced him she would be able to handle it.

As the two were leaving Ratchet said, almost as an afterthought, "If nothing else she would be good for detecting impersonators. She can tell us all apart by our spark energy." The two bots were out the door when Optimus finally processed what Ratchet had said.

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><p>Ratchet decided to see what exactly Cahira remembered from the impromptu lessons in Cybertronian anatomy and physiology when he would examine her. He was surprised at her almost total recall of the information.<p>

"What? It was interesting and I do have a semi-photographic memory. It's not that surprising that I can remember that much. Add that to the work I've done on cars and the AP science classes I took in high school, it's all a matter of applying the knowledge." Cay gave a look that clearly said 'duh'. "Ok, now there is something you've mentioned a few times but I'm not sure what exactly is. What is a subspace compartment? I get that it's used for storage but how exactly does it work?"

Ratchet began explaining. Cay grabbed her bag and grabbed a notebook and pen out, and began taking notes. She was very glad she was an honors student and took physics and calculus, because she would be totally lost otherwise.

Ironhide came limping into the med bay, and was greeted by the unusual sight of Ratchet patiently explaining how subspace worked to a human, as if she were a sparking with the processing power to understand it. He wondered if he had a glitch.

Cahira was the first to notice Ironhide, and waved at him; causing Ratchet to look at the mech. Ratchet vented his tanks in an imitation of a sigh. As Ratchet went to see what Hide needed, she decided to make sketches of the bots and, if possible, make some sort of schematic, seeing as she had no hard drive to store it on. Maybe she should invest in a decent computer. She would have to talk to Will and see about getting one; that is if this apprentice thing went through.

Cay had a rough sketch of Ironhide with all sorts of little notes about things Ratchet muttered when fixing the damaged leg strut that was caused by one of the twins. When she had some free time she would make a better, more detailed one. Grinning she watched as Ratchet continued to fix Ironhide, giggling when Ratchet would threaten Ironhide with one of his wrenches when he would not behave.

Life really was starting to look up for Cahira Whelan.

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><p>The next couple weeks Cahira spent learning more about the Autobots and what made them tick. She made her sketches of each one and had requested a computer of some sort so she could process and store the information better. Once Optimus had recovered from his shock, he had thoroughly interrogated his CMO and second in command, then proceeded to ask Cay if she really wanted to do this. Cay convinced him this really was her choice and she wanted to do it. Will was surprised when Optimus requested Cahira become attached to the unit in some fashion as she would become Ratchet's apprentice. It had been an interesting time.<p>

Currently Cay and Jazz were heading to the beach. Cay had always loved the ocean but it had been years since she had been to it. It had a calming effect on her, which was the reason she decided to head there before her run in with Barricade and Starscream.

Jazz had his holo active and pretending to drive, while Cay had her feet up on the dash. Jazz kept telling her to put them down, but Cay would just smirk at him.

Once they got the beach, they headed to the pier and Jazz kept commenting on how different Earth was to Cybertron.

"What was it like?" Cay asked.

"What? Cybertron?" at Cay's nod, he continued. "It's much different than here. Definitely not as much water. This world is so, I don't know how to explain it, other than its _alive_."

Cay snickered. "Well, duh, it's alive. Everything is biological based, whereas Cybertron I'm guessing is mostly mechanical based." She glanced back out over the water and watched the waves roll in. It was a wonder how something so unpredictable could calm her so much; just being near the ocean grounded her, strange as it sounded.

"What are you thinking about?" Jazz asked.

"Nothing important." She flashed a big grin at him. She turned and began walking back down the pier.

Jazz caught up to Cay, and turned her to face him. He was searching her face for something. "What were you thinking about? It was bothering you. You know you can talk to me whenever you need to." Jazz was almost pleading with her.

She was floored by the amount of emotion. It was nothing, right? No, she was fooling herself and burying everything again. She wasn't used to having people to depend on, and it wasn't easy to break habits born from necessity. She sighed.

"I was thinking about everything that's happened to me over the past six months, and how much my life has changed, for the better. I've lived my entire life fighting to survive and relying on myself, especially after my mom died. It's strange to have people to care for me and not expect me to do something in return. All the lessons I learned as a child are thrown out the window around you guys. I learned not to trust people and it's been hard but I'm slowly unleaning it. There's just something about being here that makes me want to trust, and finally be the 19 year old I am, instead of the jaded teen I became to survive." She gave a wistful smile. "I don't think I'll ever be as innocent as Sam, or even Mikeala, even if both of them have been exposed to the harsh realities of life, but I think I can be more myself instead of the mask I use to protect myself. Sometimes I wonder where the mask ends and I begin." She laughed to herself; it was almost bitter sounding, "Look at me baring my soul for you to see, I guess I really have changed," she paused, "maybe that's a good thing though."

Jazz stood there listening to her, it made him realize exactly how much his little femme had hidden from them. There was almost no indication that the person they knew was a mask. Her life had apparently been harder than any of them imagined, including Sarah. Emotion flowed over his face.

Cahira was looked for some response from Jazz. She watched the emotions flash across his face too quick to read, finally his face went blank. "I've said too much." She whispered, and took off running, mentally berating herself for revealing that much. She ran a while and found herself near the breakers and climbed out on the rocks, ignoring the sign. She sat on the rocks and watched to sun set and calmed herself down, there was no use crying over spilt milk, what's done is done and she just hoped that Jazz wouldn't be too angry at her.

After the sun began to slip below the horizon, she made her way off the breakers and was set on finding Jazz so they she could apologize and they could go home. She wondered down the road toward the town thinking that would be the best place to look for him.

A police cruiser pulled up behind her. She moved further off the road, but the cop stayed behind her. She was wondering what she could have done to warrant a cop following her. She continued to walk, and discretely observe the vehicle. It felt funny, almost as if…_No, It can't be._ She passed under a streetlamp and saw the words 'To punish and enslave' on the side. _A Decepticon_. She saw a walking path to the right and took off running down it.

She didn't get far. The Decpticon transformed and grabbed her, squeezing hard enough to leave bruises. It brought her up to its face. She stared into the red optics and was surprised not to feel more fear than she already did. It almost looked sad? It ran a scan on her, making her flinch, as much as she could in the vice grip, as the energy passed over her. It never said anything, just transformed around her.

She ended up in the backseat, and immediately grabbed the door handle to try to escape. No luck. She hit the door, momentarily forgetting she was currently in a Decepticon.

A gravelly, metallic voice came out of the speakers as it took off to whereabouts unknown, "Don't do that fleshbag."

"Then let me out." There was no answer. "Where the hell are you taking me?" she demanded. Still no answer, she crossed her arms and huffed.

_Well, look at this fine mess you've gotten yourself into Cahira. You just had to run off by yourself and leave the safety of Jazz. Serves you right for running again._

She looked out the window in an attempt to determine where she was being taken. The windows darkened until she could no longer see out of them in the twilight. She smelled a sweet scent in the circulating air.

As the vision began to blackout she wondered how the Decepticons learned about chloroform.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing with someone else's characters.

A special thanks to Shades-Soul for reviewing. It inspired me to finish this chapter. Enjoy.

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><p>Chapter 5<p>

"So this is a squishy?" something hard poked her side and she wasn't quite able to stifle a groan. Her head was pounding and she felt like a freight train had run her over. The words caught up in her mind.

_Squishy? _ Come to think of it, she didn't recognize the vocals of the bot who spoke.

"Is it awake?" another poke, this time she was able to prevent sound escaping.

Something scuttled on her stomach. Her eyes flew open and she attempted to sit up, but found herself bound to the oversized table. She frantically looked around as much as she was able. There were two bots standing next to the table. Both had red optics and were definitely scarier than the Autobots. Her eyes fell on the thing sitting on her stomach and she screamed. There was a metallic _insect_ sitting on her with a needle poised over her chest.

The two bots and the insect recoiled with her scream. It was enough for her to buck the insect off her. She was determined to get the bindings off. She struggled and noticed the rope holding her left hand down was fraying on the sharp edge of the table and redoubled her efforts to break it.

The bots recovered from her scream and were staring at the struggling human. One said, "I thought only Starscream could make that noise."

The other replied with, "Do you think all squishies can do that? If they can then…"

Cahira barely registered the whirs and clicks of the two bots. There were only a few threads left…

She froze. _Whirs and clicks?_ She listened to the two bots discussing what they thought she was trying to do, and she realized they weren't speaking English!

She turned her head and stared at the two bots in shock. One of the bots poked her again. The insect scuttled up to her and climbed up her arm.

Feeling the slight pinch of the insect on her arm caused her to freak out again. She jerked her arms and her left came free. She grabbed the little bug and realized it was a Decepticon, just like the other two bots. She threw it with all her might at the wall where it went through the drywall.

Not taking time to wonder why the two Decepticons weren't stopping her, she set to work on freeing her right arm.

Cahria had freed her left leg when something slammed into her. She heard a sickening crack and pain shot though her right leg. She refused to look at it. Sensing something flying at her again, she ducked. Part of the wall had collapsed, and an arm of one of the Decepticons flew over her head. It sounded like there was a fight outside of whatever the room was. Now would have been a great time to escape, however her right ankle was now broken.

The sound of an explosion spurned her into movement. Bracing herself, she began to remove the last remaining restraint. She grit her teeth and did her best to ignore the pain.

Once free, she crawled to the edge of the table and looked down. Normally the drop would have been nothing; however she had to figure out how to get down without doing too much more damage to her leg. She glanced around.

She picked up the nearest restraint and yanked; it held. Grinning slightly she leaned her head over the edge to see where it was attached. To her luck it was just under the table. She threw the rest of the restraint over the edge and saw the end was about a foot and a half off the ground. _Perfect._

Gingerly she swung her legs over the edge and grasped the restraint. Turning, she lowered herself over the edge. Slowly she made her way down. Once she was able to touch the ground she balanced on her left leg and tentatively set her right foot down. Pain nearly blinded her. _Okay not doing that again. Now what to do?_ She looked around and saw a rod of rebar and hopped over to it. It was a little long but it would have to do. She used the rebar as a makeshift crutch and hobbled out of the collapsed wall.

Outside was chaos. She stuck close to the wall and saw Optimus duking it out with a grey bot with spikes. Bumblebee was attempting to get into the building she just left but was being distracted by Barricade. Hide was firing away at anything that was not an Autobot. She reached the corner of the building and saw a motorcycle. She got on and started it up. Luckily it was an electric start, and the keys were in the ignition. Balancing she kicked the kickstand up, sending yet another round of pain in her leg. Cahira put it in gear and took off. She dodged the brawling bots, doing everything she could to stay alive and find an exit.

Suddenly the motorcycle turned on its own. She was so startled she nearly let go. There was a heads up display with words scrolling across it. She stared at the foreign characters, but she knew what it said.

_I am an Autobot. _ The words didn't reassure her much, but the fact that the motorcycle had yet to buck her off gave her hope that this really was an Autobot.

"Well, that's nice, but can we please get out of here?" The motorcycle ignored her. "In case you didn't notice, the exit is that way!" She pointed to the right. "Where the hell are you taking me, you hunk of metal?" She was panicking by now.

The motorcycle slid to a stop and tried to throw her off, but Cahira hung on. That was until a large metal hand grasped her waist and picked her up. She screamed again, causing every bot in hearing range to freeze, nearly making the bot drop her.

"Primus, don't _do_ that." She recognized the vocals as Jazz. She looked up and nearly cried in relief at seeing Jazz. She hugged the hand holding her.

"Please, _please, _get me out of here, Jazz. I'm sorry for taking off and everything…" she trailed off as Jazz transformed around her and took off, tires squealing in protest at the speed, for the highway. She sighed in relief and relaxed in the passenger seat.

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><p>Someone was nudging her shoulder saying, "Wake up Cay, we're almost there."<p>

"Huh? Wha-?" was her eloquent reply.

A rich baritone laugh answered her. "You fell asleep. We're almost back to base." Holo-Jazz glanced at her and said, "How you feeling? Those Decepticon scum do anything to you?"

She gave a short laugh, "I don't know. Barricade used chloroform on me. I woke up maybe an hour before you guys attacked." She shifted in her seat, "Ow!" She moved her right foot. "Damnit."

Jazz looked at her worriedly. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she winced, "Just ended up with a broken ankle. I'll need to see Ratch when we get back. Come to think of it, I didn't see him fighting. Did he stay at base?"

"You broke your ankle? How? And Ratchet seemed to know that you would be in the med bay when you got back, so yes he stayed."

"Someone, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it was probably Hide, blasted a hole in the wall of the place they were keeping me. They had me restrained and I had undone all but one when the blast hit. Hence my broken ankle."

Jazz parked and his holoform got out and walked to the passenger side door. He opened it and reached in.

"What are you – HEY! Put me down!" He picked up Cahira and began walking to the med bay.

"Not gonna happen, little femme." She began to protest. "You have a broken leg at the very least and can't walk, so, I'm going to carry you." She resigned herself to her fate and propped her head on her hand.

"You know, you could have said something before you started manhandling me."

"Where's the fun in that? Besides Ratch would offline me if I let you walk-"

"Hop."Cahira interjected. "I can't exactly walk, you know."

"Fine. He would offline me if I let you _hop_ to the med bay." Jazz finished.

They continued to the med bay in silence. Neither knew what to say, and yet wanting to say something. Cahira found Jazz's presence was almost as calming as the sea. She relaxed against him, falling into a light doze. Jazz couldn't help thinking _But Hide wasn't anywhere near Arcee._

That was the sight Ratchet was treated to when Jazz walked into his med bay. Jazz carrying Cay and Cay relaxed against him. Jazz carefully set Cay down on a human sized berth and allowed Ratchet to get to work.

Ratchet found some disturbing marks on Cay, in addition to the broken ankle. It appeared that the Decepticons had taken samples of blood, injected a foreign substance in to her blood and had roughly handled the small femme. She showed signs of some internal bleeding and had stress marks on her bones from being squeezed. She was covered almost head to toe in bruises. He fixed what he could but could not figure out what the substance in her blood was. However it appeared her own defenses were fighting it off or mutating it in some way, as the amount of the substance was steadily declining. He would have to wait until she woke up to see if there were any changes.

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><p>The other bots were worried for the small femme that was taken by the Decepticons. Arcee hadn't thought about it at the time but when she was speaking to the femme, she had used Cybertronian symbols. She asked Bumblebee if his human could understand Cybertronian.<p>

"No, neither Sam nor Mikeala can understand Cybertronian. Why do you ask?"

"It's just that femme we rescued, she read Cybertronian. I forgot to use English."

"How do you know she understood?" Bee was curious.

"She responded to what I said. I don't think she trusts me."

"Cay hardly trusts anyone, don't take it personally. She's trusts Ratchet and Jazz the most. Even then I don't know how much she's told them about her past. We do know she had a hard life before she came here." Bee proceeded to explain what they knew about Cay's past.

Needless to say it made the bots that were unaware of Cay's past furious.

* * *

><p>Cay woke up and found herself looking at the ceiling of the med bay. "Oi, my head." Light flared and she flinched away from it. The movement jarred her other injuries. Her ankle was fine by now but the bruising was taking more time to heal. The fact that she was quite literally black and blue made it that much harder to move without causing at least some discomfort. She was also sore and stiff. She slowly stood up and began to stretch attempting to loosen her muscles.<p>

She wandered over to Ratchet's office and found him deep in recharge on his berth. She gained a wistful smile. She wondered how much she had worried him and when the last time he had recharged. She also began to wonder exactly how long the Decepticon had her at their tender mercies. She was beginning to see Ratchet as the father she never had.

She suddenly smirked. This was too good of an opportunity to pass up. She grabbed her laptop, which she left in the med bay for convenience sake, and went to Ratchet. She plugged her laptop into his port and planted a suggestion. Ratchet would be very surprised when he woke up. She bit back her snickers as he began sleepwalking.

Cahira decided to get ready for the day, after all she needed a good alibi.

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><p>Jazz and Ironhide were introducing Cahira to the new arrivals, when the found Ratchet curled up like a cat next to a recharging Optimus. Cahira grinned and snapped a picture. This wasn't what she expected when she had implanted that suggestion but it was better than she could have imagined. At least she now had proof the two were spark mates.<p>

Jazz turned his head to the femme sitting on his shoulder. "This is your doing isn't it?"

"Maybe. But you better not say anything. I had a feeling those two had something going on. Now I know for sure."

One of the new arrivals, a yellow Lamborghini, spoke up. "How could a squishy cause this to happen?"

Cay shuddered at the use of the name squishy. "My name is Cahira. Do not call me squishy." She glared at the Lambo.

"You are just a tiny little human. What could you possibly do to me?"

Jazz groaned, one thing he had learned was to never challenge Cay.

"I can be your worst nightmare." She smirked up at him, "I am, after all, Ratchet's apprentice." She let the information sink in. "Good luck, you're going to need it." With that she walked out the door leaving Jazz trailing behind her.

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><p>Jazz didn't know what to do. He really needed to talk to Cay about what had happened while they were at the beach, however he didn't know how to go about bringing it up to the little femme. Jazz didn't realize he would be saved the trouble by said femme.<p>

"I'm sorry." The femme currently perched on his shoulder said.

"For what?" Jazz was confused, as he often was, particularly around this human.

"The beach. It was supposed to be a fun trip and I ended up ruining it by getting captured by Decepticons." She bowed her head and curled up into a ball. How she was able to accomplish that without falling amazed Jazz, but her words worried him. He sent a com to Ratchet asking him to join the two, as Jazz didn't think he would be able to handle the distraught femme alone.

"You didn't ruin anything. It was the damn Cons fault." He gently picked the femme off his shoulder and cradled her in his hand. He rubbed the tip of his finger up and down her back trying to calm her down.

Ratchet came up to that scene and his disgruntled face immediately softened. He sat down and activated his holoform, ironically enough he looked very similar to Hugh Laurie. He motioned Jazz to set Cahira down.

"Its alright little one." Ratchet said, hugging the small girl.

"No, Ratch its not. I messed up, just like I always do." She sobbed out.

Jazz activated his holoform as well. "You don't always mess up. And even if you did, its not that big of a deal."

Cahira let out a half laugh. "Why are you so nice?"

The two bots were thrown off buy the abrupt change of topic.

"What do you mean, little one?" Ratchet asked softly.

Cahira pulled away from him, and searched his face then Jazz's. "You don't understand, and yet you both know exactly what to say."

The cryptic words just confused them more, and it showed.

"I grew up with my _father_," she spat the word like a curse, "belittling me at every chance. Even when my mom was alive. It was only because she was around that he didn't hit me. I always wondered why my mom stayed with him, but I guess she had a reason, although I'll never know. It's been nine years since she died. I've had no one to rely on since. It took everything I had to survive living with that ass but I managed. Its weird thinking that I have beings that actually care about me, but the two of you are starting to prove it."

"Why did you run?" Jazz asked. Ratchet looked on confused.

"I ran because I was afraid. Much as it pains me to admit, I guess you could say I have abandonment issues. I had convinced myself you would hate me because of what I said."

"What exactly did you say?" Cahira stiffened at Ratchet's words.

Seeing this reaction he pulled her back into a hug. She mumbled something into his chest. "What was that?"

She lifted her head a bit. "I said, I still wear the mask."

It took Ratchet a moment to respond, and Cahira burried her head in his chest again.

"I didn't expect you to completely let it go that quickly. But how much of what you've done is actually you and how much is the mask?"

"I don't know." Cahira said in a small voice.

The two bots looked at each other and vowed to always be there for the little femme when she needed it.


	6. Chapter 6

Ok. Sorry for the long wait but I haven't had much inspiration for writing. This is a short chapter and I apologize but I never expected people to like this fic and I'm trying to figure out where I want to go with this. If anyone had any suggestions feel free to speak up. I have a vague idea now where I'm going with this story, its just a matter of making it go where I want to.

Disclamer: Not mine, so no sue me please.

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><p>Two weeks later found a very annoyed Cahira glaring at a yellow Lamborghini in the med bay. Ratchet was on a mission with Optimus, Hide, and the twins, leaving her in charge of the med bay. Sunstreaker had come in looking for Ratchet to fix a problem he had with one of his weapons, and had found Cahira in his place. Now he refused to leave his alt form which led to the situation they were in now.<p>

"Transform, Sunstreaker."

"No," the voice floated out of the speakers, "I don't trust a little insect like you."

"Then you leave me no choice." She grabbed her laptop and hacked at Sunstreaker's firewalls. She briefly entertained the idea of planting the suggestion to paint himself pink, but dismissed it.

"What are you doing? Hey! What-?" Sunstreaker found himself transforming against his will, and he couldn't return to his alt form; he couldn't move at all for that matter. "Slag it!"

"Baby." Cahira rolled her eyes and walked over to the now prone Autobot. "Now, lets see what the problem is, hmm?"

Two hours later Ratchet found Cahria sitting on Sunstreaker's left forearm with her laptop propped on his chest plates tinkering with something, and Sunstreaker was sprawled out on the floor. Getting his paint job dirty.

"What are you doing?" Ratchet asked.

"Hi Ratch. I'm just fixing some wiring that was burned upon atmospheric entry." Cahria said, never once looking up from her work. Ratchet walked over and peered down at her work and found he could not see any burned wiring.

"What burned -?"

Cahria pointed to a pile of blackened something off to the side. She then slid the pannel shut and said, "See, that wasn't so bad now was it?" Sunstreaker's optics narrowed, "Yes, yes, plan my imminent demise, but maybe I'll just leave you immobile on the floor?" She glanced at him.

Ratchet just watched the scene in wonder. A five foot nothing human femme took on Sunstreaker and won, how, he was unsure, but at least they now had two medics on site.

* * *

><p>Three days later Cahira was helping Ratchet take inventory in the med bay when she came across her mother's necklace. She pulled it out and stared at it for a while, letting the few good memories she had of her mother flit through her mind.<p>

Shaking her head, she slipped the cord over her head and let the vial of energon rest near her heart, and then went back to cleaning the cabinet she was working on. She finished twenty minutes later.

"Hey Ratch, anything else you need help with?" She asked.

"No. But I do want to know where you got that energon from."

"Oh. I found it in one of the cabinets. You know who made it?"

"Unfortunately, I do not recognize the signature of the bot who made the energon. I can tell that it is about eight thousand years old." Ratchet replied.

Cahira picked up the vial and looked at it. "Eight _thousand_ years old?"

"It has been changed from the original container a few times-"

"No dur." Cahira muttered.

"-but it is still good. And it matches the remnants I found in your blood. _I also think it is how you are able to understand Cybertronian._"

Cahria froze at the whirs and clicks coming from Ratchet. Her mind taking her back to the Decepticons' hide out. Then the words registered in her mind, and she relaxed. This was Ratchet. "Please don't do that. And how did you know I understood _Cybertronian_?" Her hand slapped over her mouth as she emitted the clicks necessary to form the language. Her eyes went wide in horror.

Ratchet raised an optic ridge. "Well your accent is atrocious, but-" He looked at the femme and picked her up, depositing her on the nearest bench. Then went about scanning her. "Do you feel any different?"

"No, why?" She asked, standing very still as Ratchet scanned her. His actions were scaring her.

"Because you should not be able to make the sounds necessary to speak Cybertronian. As I said, your accent is atrocious but I was able understand you." He finished his scans. "I wonder if you can truly speak the language or if you can only say certain words or phrases."

"How would we test that?" She wondered how she would speak a language she didn't conciously know. "_I mean would I just think about speaking it or what?_" She paused and looked at Ratchet. "_Ratch? Hello?_" She waved her arms. "_Why are you looking at me like that?_"

Ratchet shuttered his optics a couple times to ensure he was seeing his scans properly. He was brought back to reality to by a thud as Sunstreaker hit the floor.

"_What happened to him?_" Cahira asked.

"You're speaking Cybertronian again." Ratchet replied as he went to reboot Sunstreaker's processor.

"_I am? How do I turn it off? When did I even start speaking it?"_ She let out several clicks in distress as she began to panic.

Jazz happened to be passing the med bay if Cahira was done for the day. When he heard the distressed clicks, similar to a sparkling but with a human undertone that made no sense, he ran into the room to find the source; nearly tripping over Sunstreaker on the ground. He looked around in confusion as he heard human laughter mixed with amused beeps.

"Ratch, what's going on?" He asked.

"It seems Cahira can not only understand Cybertronian, she can speak it." Ratchet replied as Sunstreaker began to function again.

"What do you mean 'speak it'? She doesn't have the necessary equipment to make the correct sounds." Jazz said.

"That what I thought. Never expected to see squishy talk in Cybertronian flawlessly." Sunstreaker said as he got off the floor.

"_Stop calling me squishy!_" Cahira gave into the childish urge to stomp her foot as she said it.

"Frag she speaks Cybertronian." Jazz said.

"_I wish I knew how to turn it _off. It kind of hurts." She blinked. "Oh you have got to be kidding me. That's how I turn it _on and _off. By thinking about it?" She dropped to the table and crossed her legs indian style. "This sucks. Ratch? What else is this energon going to do to me?" She asked meekly.

"I don't know."

* * *

><p>In another part of the world a small bug-like Decepticon was giving his report. <em>"Milord, it appears the femme has energon in her blood and it has been there for quite some time."<em>

"_She was not harmed by it?" _

"_No milord." _The bug responded.

"_Interesting._" The large bot's red optics took on a decidedly menacing light. _"Was there anything else you were able to find out about this femme._"

"_Yes. She understands Cybertronian. The energon must be changing her. The metal content of her blood and total body composition was much higher than normal for a human." _The bug looked thoughtful. _"Perhaps the energon is changing her to be more like us. I'll need to run some more tests, but the femme left with the Autobot scum."_

"_She could be useful. It appears the Autobots are fond of this pathetic human._" The larger bot pondered his next plans. "_Yes. We will reacquire the femme. In the mean time I want to know if this could happen with the rest of this pathetic race. It could make them more efficient slaves for us." _

The bug looked positively gleeful at the prospect.


	7. Chapter 7

OMG I'm so sorry for not updating for a while, but RL has been hell. Here's another chapter of OWR. It's a bit shorter than I wanted but it's kind of heavy. I had a hard time figuring out how to write what I wanted to happen, but I'm happy with how it turned out. As always anything recognizable is not mine, I'm just playing with characters owned by people much more creative than me. Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

><p>Cahira walked through the doors of the med bay, and turned around to walk right back out, but was picked up by an unamused Jazz.<p>

"Damn." She muttered. Cahira had been avoiding everyone on the base. She felt like she didn't belong there. She was a freak of nature and needed to be kept away from everyone to save them from having to deal with her. Ratchet had sent her a text message to come to the med bay. Maybe she should consider getting rid of the cell phone, then she could plead ignorance, but the bots would never go for that, it was merely wishful thinking.

Jazz set her down in front of Ratchet, who immediately ran a scan on her.

"Hey! What's the big idea?" She glared at the yellow mech.

"I want to make sure the energon isn't doing anything else to you." Ratchet stated. "It looks like your bones have a higher metal count than normal." He picked the girl up. "You need to be careful. I think being in such close proximity to us has accelerated the process."

Cahira threw her hands in the air. "Great. Just great. Why does this shit always happen to me?"

Jazz scooped the girl up into his hand and carried her out of the med bay. He transformed around her and took off out of the base. Cahira was in the passenger seat, and Jazz activated his holoform.

"So," He said, a bit awkwardly, "you want to tell me what's going on?"

Cahira folded her arms across her chest and turned away from him. "Not really."

Jazz drove on in silence for a while until they came to a small ridge overlooking the highway. His holoform got out and walked to the passenger side. After sending a small command to open the door he grabbed Cahira and pulled her from his mech form.

"Hey-" Cahira stumbled. "Watch it. What the hell do you think you're doing Jazz?" She stood in front of him and crossed her arms.

"I just want to make sure you're okay. You're not acting like you usually do." Jazz said, trying to get her out of her defensive stance.

"There's nothing wrong with how I'm acting." Cahira accused.

Jazz put his hands up. "Hey, I didn't say there was. I just said it was different."

Cahria sighed and leaned against the back of the Solstice. "It's just happening too fast, you know? I don't know what to think. Hell I don't know who I am anymore."

"You're Cahira Whelan. Femme with a, what was it? Oh, spitfire attitude, and can stand her ground with any mech when you're in the mood to. You're smart, pit, Ratchet took you on as an apprentice. He never takes apprentices. You know how to deal with just about any problem, and you won't stay down, no matter how many times they try." Jazz walked over to her. "You're amazing."

Cahira smiled slightly and shook her head. "That's not what I meant. I mean I know who I am, I guess it's more what I am that has me confused. Am I human, or Cybertronian? Or am I a hybrid? I just don't know where I belong anymore."

"It doesn't matter. No matter what, you'll always have us." Jazz gave her a hug.

"Thanks Jazz, but it does matter. I was born human, raised human, ergo I should be human. But something changed. I dunno if it was the energon or something that creepy insect bot did, or what, but I'm different now. And I don't know how to deal with it." She buried her face in his chest and clung to him.

"It'll be okay. Ratchet will figure it out." Jazz pushed her away gently, "Now hows about we have some fun and get your processor off all this heavy slag."

Cahira laughed softly, "Mind, Jazz. The phrase is mind off of it. I don't have a processor, well, I do if you count the electronics I carry, but then that's not really me." She looked at him quizzically, "What did you have in mind to do?"

Jazz rubbed the back of his neck, "Uh, I hadn't really thought that far ahead."

Cahira shook her head. She got in the Solstice and said, "Then we'll figure it out on the way."

* * *

><p>Optimus Prime was looking over some data pads when he heard the exasperated vocals of his SIC.<p>

"What in the pit is so fun about hitting a small ball into a hole? And why the slag was there a windmill in the way." There was a pause. "What do you mean 'It's a child's game'?"

Now Optimus's interest was piqued. He got up and peaked out the door to see Jazz carrying Cahira, the small human that his spark mate was beginning to see as his sparkling. "What are you two talking about?" He asked.

Cahira laughed and replied, "Mini-golf!"

Jazz scowled at the femme in his hand. "How is it mini? The ball is the same size and you use a stick to hit the ball. I still don't see how that's fun."

"Mini-golf?" Optimus asked, unsure if he really wanted to know, but he did want a distraction from the boring data pads.

Cahira nodded enthusiastically, obviously amused by Jazz and Optimus's confusion. "It's called mini-golf because the distance from the tee to the hole is shorter. And you were the one that wanted to try it. Personally I prefer mini-golf to regular golf. It's always fun to see what obstacles they put on the course. Regular golf is just boring." An evil looking grin appeared on her face, "Then there's Frisbee golf, which I think is kind of hard, but fun all the same. Then again I can't aim a Frisbee very well to begin with. I usually have a better chance of hitting a bystander than I do the goal."

Jazz and Optimus looked at each other. Humans were strange creatures.

"Oh c'mon. I'm not making it up. Frisbee is a flat piece of, usually, plastic that you throw and it spins and hovers. Depending on the angle and speed you throw it determines where it goes." Cahira started tapping her foot, "Just look it up online."

Optimus shook his head slightly, vaguely wondering if all humans had a glitch in their sanity centers, and said, "You seem to be in better spirits, Little One."

Cahira froze. Little One. That was something her mother called her, something she hadn't been called since she died.

"I'm sorry, Cahira. I didn't mean to upset you, it's just your kind is so much younger than us, and I forget you become an adult when we would still be sparklings." Optimus held out his hand and Jazz moved his charge to Optimus's.

Cahira snapped out of her memories. "It's not that. It's just...I haven't been called that since my mother died." She glanced at Optimus. "I don't mind it. It just caught me off guard."

Jazz slipped out the door. He could see that Optimus wanted to get to know the femme that had so impressed Ratchet.

"I see." Optimus said. "If it brings up such bad memories then I will not use it."

"NO! I mean its okay. It's not bad memories, they're good ones. It just wasn't expecting it." Cahira said. She was a little intimidated by this powerful bot, not because of his status, but because of the power he had over how the rest of her life would go. She clasped her hands behind her back and looked down at his hand.

Optimus chucked. "Ratchet always said you had a very interesting personality and you didn't fear us." He looked at her and used a digit to gently lift her chin to look at his optics. "Why are you so hesitant?"

Cahira startled the mech by flopping down on his hand. "I don't know how to act around you."

"What do you mean, Little One?" Optimus tried out the pet name again.

Cahira smiled at the term of endearment. "It's just, I'm a little country girl with no clue how to act around anyone of status. You're the leader of the Autobots. That must mean something right? I also don't want to disappoint Ratchet." The last part was almost inaudible to his audios.

"Disappoint Ratchet? How would you disappoint him?" He asked.

"He's the closest thing I've ever had to a father, and you're his spark mate. I think it's more I want you to approve of me, because in the end, I know it will be you he chooses, if it comes to that. I don't want to lose that, the feeling of safety, of _family_, that I get around him. I guess," She sighed, "I guess I was hoping that maybe I could increase my family by one more bot." She looked down and shuffled her feet nervously.

Optimus was stunned. This little human femme wasn't intimidated because he was leader of the Autobots, she wasn't intimidated because he was a Prime; she was intimidated because he was Ratchet's spark mate. He couldn't help, he laughed.

Cahira bit her lip and felt tear well up in her eyes. She should have known it wouldn't work out. Something always would go wrong, just when everything felt so right. She turned away from Optimus's face and tried to figure out how to get off his hand.

Optimus looked at the femme in his hand and was startled when she sat on the edge of his servo looked at the ground 15 feet below. "Cahira, Little One, what are you doing?"

Cahira continued to focus on the ground. How to get down so she could find the best place to hide herself away from the shame? She had opened up and bared some of her fears and wishes to Optimus and he had laughed in her face. She nearly fell off her precarious perch when she felt something trail down her back. She looked over her shoulder to see it was one of Optimus's fingers.

Optimus was startled to see the glassy sheen in Cahira's eyes. "What's wrong, Little One?"

Cahira shook her head. "It doesn't matter. It won't happen no matter how much I wish otherwise." She shut her eyes, holding the tears back. "Would you please put me down?" She never noticed that he was still calling her 'Little One'.

Optimus was now confused, but did as the little femme asked.

"Good day, Optimus Prime." Cahira walked out of the office and disappeared around the corner.

Optimus was surprised. In all the time he had known Cahira, she had never called him by his title, content with calling him Optimus. He pondered the sudden change in the femme's attitude and decided to pay Ratchet a visit to see if his spark mate had any idea to why the change came about.

* * *

><p>"You did WHAT after she said she wanted to consider you family?" Ratchet whacked his spark mate on the back of his helm with a wrench. "You slagging glitch-head!"<p>

Optimus tried to fend off his spark mate's wrenches as he asked, "What do you mean? I didn't do anything! She just turned away and then asked to be put on the ground. Stop hitting me!"

"Of all the glitching things you could have done, you laughed! She must have thought you were laughing at the idea that you could accept her. What in the pit possessed you to laugh?" Ratchet had stopped hitting Optimus, but still held the wrench in his hand. Optimus eyed it warily before answering.

"I found it amusing that even after learning everything she has about us, she wasn't intimidated because of what my status was, she wasn't intimidated because I was a Prime. She was intimidated because I was your spark mate. It took one little human femme to make me realize that I'm not just a Prime, or the leader of the Autobots."

Ratchet vented his tanks, put his wrench away (Optimus was very happy to see it disappear) and pinched the bridge of his olfactory receptors. He explained that Cahira probably took it the wrong way and thought he was laughing at the idea of being a family. "Come on you glitching aft, let's go find our sparkling."

* * *

><p>Cahira made her way to the roof where she sat on the edge of the building and finally broke down. It had been a long time since she had cried. Tears fell silently down her cheeks. How could she have thought that any of them would think of her as anything but a passing memory?<p>

She knew their lifespans were inconceivably long, especially seeing as Bumblebee was the youngest and he was over twenty thousand years old. Bee wasn't even considered an adult mech yet, he was still a youngling. She had been selfish. She shouldn't have thought that any of them would feel any sort of kinship with her.

She didn't know how long she sat there, but slowly the tears stopped falling and she stared blankly at the setting sun. She jumped when she felt two holoforms sit on either side of her. She stiffened when she recognized their signatures as Ratchet and Optimus.

"I would like to apologize, Little One." The one that felt like Optimus said. "I didn't mean to laugh at you. I was laughing at the fact that of all things that could have made me intimidating to you, it was because I was Ratchet's spark mate that you were intimidated."

"The slagger didn't realize that you might have taken it the wrong way." Ratchet said.

"Why was it funny that I was intimidated because of that?" She asked softly.

"Because I have become so used to everyone being intimidated for many reasons, size, that I'm a Prime, I'm leader of the Autobots, many reasons. But you were the first to be intimidated because of who my spark mate was to you. After Ratchet told me what you may have though when I laughed, I looked up surrogate caretakers and realized that you thought I was rejecting you. I wasn't."

"You weren't?" Cahira looked at Optimus in disbelief.

Optimus was surprised to see the slightly red eyes and evidence that she had been leaking, crying according to the internet. "No I wasn't. I wasn't expecting what you said and it caught me off guard. Are you alright?"

Cahria realized she must have had tear tracks on her face and ducked her head to try to rub them off. "I'm fine." She mumbled.

Ratchet looked at the femme curiously, but Optimus shook his head. Ratchet nodded his head and stood up. He gave the two a little bit of space; he knew this was something the two of them needed to work out for themselves.

"No, you're not. I upset you. I'm sorry." Optimus said.

Cahria knew she wouldn't get out of this conversation, especially with Ratchet there as well. She harbored a small hope that it had all been a big misunderstanding. "You still haven't said anything."

Optimus tilted his head in confusion. "What?"

Cahira let out a bitter laugh. "You haven't said anything in response to my slip up." She saw the confusion increase. "When I said I hoped I could increase my family by one more bot."

Ratchet's processor stalled for a moment. She thought of him as family? Her reaction made a lot more sense now. She was treating Optimus like a new step-parent. He fervently prayed to Primus that Optimus straightened everything out.

"Of course, you can increase it by one more bot." Ratchet nearly vented his tanks in relief that Optimus had said that, "In fact I think your family will be increasing by a few more bots in the near future."

Cahira blinked, and processed what he said. Then she nearly launched herself at Optimus wrapping her arms around him in a hug. "Thank you."


End file.
